Change of crew
Christine's Atlantic Circuit
Peter Lansdale
Wed 31 Aug 2016 19:12
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28:56.7N 13:32.8W
We are now back in Arrecife where I am staying until my
next crew join me on the 8th September, so hopefully I will finally finish that
jobs list. Gary flies home tomorrow and Peter leaves on Friday. We have had an
extremely good passage across from the Algarve with a reasonable period at sea
to ensure that we are organised and ready for the Atlantic crossing. We will
meet up again in November in Las Palmas ready for the partying with the ARC and
the crossing to the Caribbean.
Sailing here over the last few days has been very
strange and unpredictable. Having made very poor progress to get to Castillo, 3
days ago we left with the expectation of another difficult sail. The northerly
built during the day to around 20 Knots from a northerly direction as usual but
after first sailing on the tack to take us offshore we only tacked once towards
the shore and gradually as we approached the northern end of Fuerteventura the
wind veered so that we made it all the way past the Isla de Lobos and on the
Marina Rubicon on the south end of Lanzarote. As we approached the land we
entered the calm zone and motored the last few miles. We had cover the 30 miles
from Castillo to Rubicon in the same time it took to do the 17 miles the day
before.
Yesterday was another quite depressing day regarding the
progress we could make. We left Rubicon in very little wind with the intention
of sailing to Arrecife but once we had cleared Pta Papagayo, the south
eastern headland of Lanzarote the usual north easterly filled in and built
during the day. There appeared to be a tremendously strong south westerly
current and by mid afternoon we gave up and headed for Puerto Calero, about 6
miles covered from Rubicon. It turned out to be quite fortuitous as the wind
continued to increase until it was blowing a near gale.
Today was a marvellous sail. The gale overnight had gone
although the wind appeared to be quite strong but was slightly more northerly so
we could more or less lay the course for Arrecife. Nevertheless it was blowing
20 to 28 knots but we sailed up close hauled with 2 reefs and made port by
lunchtime, about a dozen miles. The big difference today was that the
current/tide was behind us which gave us very good speed over ground. Why the
current was flowing north today when all other days it has flowed south is
completely beyond me.
So this is the skipper signing off now until Terry and
Sue and my partner Lynn join me on the 8th September for some holiday
sailing.
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